


Never Let Go (Short Hiatus- Read Bio)

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Drowning, F/F, FTM Karkat, Homophobia, Humanstuck, M/M, Multi, On Hiatus, Suicide Attempt, Trans Character, Transphobia, davekat - Freeform, highschool
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-08
Updated: 2015-08-08
Packaged: 2018-04-13 14:31:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4525659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dave is the hot 'mute' boy in the school. Karkat is the... New kid? After saving the kid and walking out of school, Dave doesn't possibly think of what he's doing before he puts everything he has in protecting the boy, promising to never let him go.</p><p>That's the best damn summary ever, amiright? Nah, I'm sorry I suck at summary's. I promise the fic is a lot better though, so please check it out :) Also on my Wattpad @ Gh0stPr1nc3 (I update faster on there).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Loosing Your Shit

Dave's POV

You roll your eyes behind your shades, completely zoning out for the rest of the conversation your friends strike up at the table. Well, you wouldn't really consider all of them your 'friends', more like acquaintances. John is really the only true friend you have, the rest are simply there because you're one of the 'cool-popular guys' in this stupid school.

You don't really understand why. Sure, you've got you're looks but that's really it. You refuse to talk to anyone including John most of the time. It's not that you dislike everyone, you absolutely hate everyone but that's not the point, you just don't want to talk and make 'friends' with someone who only likes you for one little thing. That's just absolute bullshit.

So no, you aren't quiet to keep up your cool kid facade, you're doing it because you'd rather not talk to these shit spewing imbeciles.

John, however, you're just so used to not talking. He doesn't take it to offense of course, which you're glad for. You do have your moments where you'll laugh at his stupid pranks and videos on youtube that he watches.

To the school, you're practically mute and useless to be around but you're hot, have an excuse to wear shades in school, your brother is, apparently, hot and to top it all off, he's dating the hottest and cutest boy in school, Jake English. Not to mention you're brothers Texan accent and Jake's Australian one. Yup. Don't forget the fangirls and fanboys either.

You're snapped from your thoughts when you see a flash of someone from the corner of you're eye.

Suddenly, you become aware of the environment around you. The cafeteria is dead silent except for the yelling from one kid. 

You turn your attention to the scene behind you: A... New kid? Shoved on the floor, bruise very showing on his cheek, books and other school supplies strewn all across the cafeteria floor, and fear clear in his eyes. He props himself up on his elbows, making a move to get back up but the other standing in front of him pushes his foot into the kids chest and shoves him back down.

"I said, you are a fucking girl. An ugly one at that! You aren't a boy so stop acting like one!" The teen shouts down at him. 

The fuck does he mean he's not a boy? He looks like one to you. Besides, who's business is it to tell people what gender they are? That's right, fucking no one.

The boy on the floor adverts his eyes from him. 

You don't know who most of the kids here are, you don't really pay attention to the people and more to your work. You just want to graduate and get out of this hell hole.

"Yes I am. I'm a boy and nothing you say will ever change that, ass nugget," the smaller spits at him, shoving his foot off and getting to his feet. As soon as he does though, a fist whistles trough the air and connects with the boys jaw. 

You can hear an audible crack and you just know how bad that fucking had to hurt. The force sends him back to the ground and he clutches where he was hit, eyes brimming with tears but never falling. Why is nobody doing anything to help him?!

"Fuckin' tranny! Don't you ever-"

That's it. You're about to fucking loose your shit and no one but Bro has seen that happen once. Let's just say that someone walked home with a terrible black eye, face pounded in and dislocated shoulder.

"Admit that you're a fucking girl! You aren't a boy and never will be. Being a freak like that is a sin! God-"

Holy shit you hate this kid. You have officially lost your shit.

You abruptly stand up to your feet, stride over to the guy, grip him by the shoulder to spin him around and hit him straight in the gut. Hard. 

He doubles over in pain, looking like he's about to puke and you take the chance, kneeing him in the face which sends him on his back like he put the smaller in.

He's bleeding from his nose, probably broken and groaning in pain. Fucking serves him right for being an asshole.

You walk over and reach your hand out to help up the brown haired boy. 

"You okay, man?" You speak up and everything seems to grow more tense in the room, a quiet gasp the only sound. You're just talking like any other person, what the hell do they want now?

He hesitates for a second before taking your hand and giving you a quick smile before gathering up his things in a rush because everybody's staring at you both like you're fucking crazy. 

"Yes, I'm fucking fine," He snaps, trying not to look you in the eyes as if he's embarrassed. You understand that. But maybe he just doesn't want to look at you because he'd probably just be staring at himself through your shades.

There's a quiet murmur across the cafeteria, probably calling you psychotic and other stupid shit.

"Shut the hell up and stop staring assfucks!" He yells after he gets his bag slung back over his shoulder and then runs off to anywhere but here. You wouldn't blame him.

You decide against finishing your lunch to avoid the questions and seething from others, your days here are shitty enough as it is.

You fix your shades so they're no longer crooked, comb a hand through your snow white hair and go to one of the restroom to wash up before a teacher comes.

You'd probably still get in trouble but you really needed to calm down before you seriously fucked someone up.

As you're walking back, you come to a halt.

It's already 2:20 in the evening; ten minutes before the bell rings and you can leave. Guess you're leaving early. You don't wanna deal with this place any longer than you have to.

You rush to your locker, shove your things into your bag and fling it over your shoulder with a slam of your locker closing shut as you walk out the front door.

You didn't have a ride and walking would take a while but maybe it would give you some time to clear your thoughts.

And as you walk down the chipped and half clear sidewalk by the packed and dangerous street, you reach into your pockets, fishing for your phone and earbuds, turn your music on and drown out all the bullshit you always here.

You really needed to do this more often.


	2. Midnight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to make it clear, for this story, yes, Bro and Dirk are completely separate characters. Bro is actually their father but he goes by Bro okay? Okay, good.

Dave's POV

You were still walking around the city, not bothering to even text Bro where you were at. Mainly because you didn't even know where you were by now. Well, you did, just not by very specific directions.

It's been a few hours that you've been walking and you're surprised no one has tried to mug or kidnap you yet. It's a good thing for them too because you have a dagger in your backpack if you needed it for situations like that. You don't fuck around like you used to as a kid. Last time you had, someone almost ended up dead because of Dirk and you were almost taken away by Child Services.

You. Check your phone to see that it's midnight and curse under your breath. Bro is seriously going to freak out if not already. 

You pick up your pace, in a rush to get to your apartment. You are so fucking dead.

After a few minutes, you reach the bridge, being cautious of vehicles before running across the street and getting onto the sidewalk again. You really hope that Bro is still out at work, if he could even call it that. Dirk was probably still out with Jake and you're extremely grateful for that because he couldn't care less about your well being if he's with him anyways. You could be in China for all he cares.

You suddenly come to an abrupt stop, haunting your steps; frozen at the sight in front of you.

It looks like the kid you helped at lunch today. Only he's sitting on the railing of the bridge and shifting around to get on the other side of it, standing on the small ledge.

If you didn't know any better, you'd just say he was enjoying the view and being a dangerous fuck. But then he braces himself and you can't faintly hear him whisper the words "I'm sorry" and dammit if that isn't have all the assurance you needed to know he was about to fucking jump.

You force yourself to run in your state of shock, going to grab his arm when he jumps.

You cry out, yanking your shades and bag off, throwing them on the sidewalk along with anything else in your pockets and getting on the ledge. Before you even realize what you're doing, you take a deep breath and dive in after him.

Oh my god, please don't be dead you idiot

You manage to keep in your breath as the freezing water hits your skin, enveloping you in the darkness as well. It hurts for you to open your eyes with all the bacteria and such in the filthy water but you have to find him.

Your bright red eyes scan everywhere you possibly can until you see a line of air bubbles to your right, rising to the surface of the water and then you see him.

You grab him by the waist, swimming as fast as you can to the dirt and sand with you clothes and shoes on. When you finally reach the bank, you lay him down, getting up beside him to breathe long enough until you catch you breath; turning him on his back.

You're afraid you might actually have to give the kid CPR. You were taught by your half sister, Rose. She thought it was something necessary you would have to learn and you've never really had to put your knowledge of it to the test in a real situation. How she learned it? She really wanted to be and ANT.

You listen for breathing and no duh you don't hear it, he just fucking drowned, his breath was already lost down the.

You press your ear to his chest when you can't feel his pulse through his neck or wrist. It's there, a faint beat but it's slow and decreasing gradually.

You obviously start with chest compressions, trying to pump whatever water is still in his lungs and hopefully that's going to save him because god, you really don't want to have to put your mouth on a complete strangers. If it meant saving his life, you would but you'd like to avoid it as much as you possibly could.

You realize that he has something on through his shirt and lift it up and- oh. Oh that's why they were being assholes. Still doesn't give them the right at all and it still pisses you off. Maybe this is why the kid tried to commit suicide for christ's sake. If they are the ones that really pushed him over the edge that made him want to do this, you are seriously going to fuck shit up with those morons.

You know you have to take his binder off and you don't really want to do that for his sake but you don't want to hurt him. 

You're relieved to remember that most people that do wear binders also wear a sports bra of sorts under it. You leave that on and immediately start pumping compressions into his chest.

After a few minutes, he finally starts coughing and hacking up the water that was stored in his lungs, sitting up and leaning over to get it all out of his system. You back up to give him some space, time to breathe and take in his surroundings because you don't want to get hit in the face.

Soon after you look over at him, shooting him a curios glance as if to ask him if he's okay.

He scowls at you and pulls his knees up to his chest and lays his head on them as he hugs them tightly, his messy black hair getting in his eyes. 

"Hey, man, you okay? I mean, of course not but... Y'know what I mean."

He doesn't answer, just nods his head 'yes' slowly then goes back to shaking like a leaf in a storm.

You slowly walk closer to him, sitting down beside him and handing him his shirt and binder.

"Sorry... I had to take at least these off to get you breathing again."

He nods an okay and flinched when you rest your hand on his back. 

"Why did you save me... Jumping was kind of the point of never coming back you know," He murmurs, cowering in on himself once again.

"I didn't want you to die, duh. I don't know you well, hell, I don't know you at all but you seem like a pretty nice guy and I- yeah..." You were about to say you thought he was cute but now was not the time. If anything, you'd probably just embarrass yourself. "Why- never mind. Stupid question. Um... What's your name? I never caught it."

"Because I never told you asshat. Why do you want to know? No one would want to bother knowing anyways."

"We'll I do," You say back, moving your hand to rest at his lower back.

He doesn't answer for a while, silence washing over the botch of you as we'll as the cars driving up ahead of you on the bridge and the lights of stores and multiple other buildings illuminating the entire city and night sky.

"It's preferably Karkat... I don't like my birth name so others like to call me that," The smaller explains and you really can't help but smile at him.

"Well, Karkat, my name is-"

"Dave. I know. Sorry, couldn't help it," He looks away again and you can see the slightest of blushes on his cheeks.

Hell fucking yes. Score one Dave Strider.

"So, you either stalk me or it's just one of those 'I just know you because everyone talks about you' kinda thing," You smirk and he nods at the last one.

"I'm not a crazy stalker like some crazy idiots out there. Anyways, why the fuck did you help me in the cafeteria today? You could have just let them beat me like the worthless scumbag I am. You know why they did it so I honestly don't know why you're still fucking bothering to talk to me."

"Because I don't care about that and I honestly don't see why they would use that as a reason to hurt someone so nice as you."

He rolls his eyes at that and you smile. His eyes are red too... Shit, you forgot about your glasses up on the sidewalk. He hasn't really looked at you so you hope he hasn't seen then yet.

"Hey, I kind of left my stuff up on the bridges sidewalk and I don't want it gettin' stolen. Get your stuff and come back up with me?" You ask, hiding your eyes from him as you do. You hate your eyes, everyone does.

He nods, grabbing his soaked shirt and binder, taking your hand as you stand up and letting you help him up and you fight the smile when he doesn't even try to pull his hand away from yours, holding his hand as you walk back up to the sidewalk and grab your stuff. 

You tug your favorite shirt with the broken record on it on, fix your shades when they're on, throw everything else into your bag and sling it over your shoulder; reaching for Karkat's hand again. He takes it without hesitation this time and looks at his feet instead of you.

"Want me to walk you home? Don't really know where you live so you'll have to show me," You offer. You're going to walk him home whether he says yes or no, you just need him to tell you where he lives.

"Actually, I uh... My dad literally just kicked me out... Kids at school told my dad and he's a Christian that won't even take his son as an excuse. Apparently because he 'loves God more' than he loves me as always," He scoffs and you can see the shining of tears. His dad's a bastard too.

"You're staying with me then," You state as you grip his hand slightly tighter. You don't mean to but your anger can get the best of you if you couldn't already tell by now. You lessen your grip when he expresses his sign of pain. "Sorry."

"It's fine. And I'm not letting you do that. You've put up with my sorry ass enough, how am I not pissing you off with my existence?"

You let out a quiet snort of laughter until you realize it's actually a genuine question; he's being completely serious.

"How could I not like your existence? You're absolutely great to hang around with. I rarely talk but... Here I am talking to you. I don't really know you and the only other person I talk with is my best friend John. He's such a fuckin' dork, I think you'd like him. Or you'd yell at him because of his interests. Ask anyone around school, they'd more than likely say I was mute."

That seems to make him smile slightly but you know it isn't a full one, then again, the kid did just attempt suicide, he's pretty unhappy with his life as of now. Just getting that much of a smile is a start for you.

Before you know it, you're in front of the large building where your apartment is. Yours is on the ninth floor. It use to be higher when you lived in Texas but now you live in New York and it fucking sucks. You never know what could happen. There's always someone getting murdered, kidnapped, raped, etc. and it terrible. Just to think of all that happening to so many and thinking it could be someone you know sort of hurts.

When you reach your floor, right before you open the door, you put a hand over Karkat's mouth to silence him.

"You have to be quiet and stay right beside me. I'm not supposed to be out this late and Bro may possibly freak the fuck out on us, okay?" You clarify through your barely audible whispering.

He nods his head and grabs onto your hand again. You think it's just his way to know someone's there and to ground him to reality instead of his own thoughts.

You carefully and slowly open the door, managing to shit it behind you take both of your shoes off and put your bag down before the light switches on.

Welp. You're fucked.

"David E-"

"Not the full name," You snap back, glaring at him even though you're pretty sure he can't see it through yoir shades and his own. Then again, he's raised you since you were a kid, you're sixteen, he can figure out your expression by now without your eyes.

He has his arms crossed and if it weren't for the way how Karkat was clinging to your hand like a life line, you think he would have yelled at you.

"Why?" Is all he says.

"Bro, c'mon. You know I wouldn't be out this late if it wasn't important. I'll tell you later okay, just... Don't blow up on me. Let me show him to my room and then we'll talk oka-"

"That's not what I'm talking about."

"Then what the f-"

"The school called today and said you beat the shit out of a kid. Kid had a fucking broken nose and lost a lot of blood; a lot of bruising too."

Damn, he's pissed. He hasn't used that voice since, well, since child services tried to take you and Dirk away because some asshole's kidnapped you.

"Because he was about to beat the shit out of another kid! He was hurting him and making fun of him and oh my god, he's lucky I didn't kill him with what he said. Who knows what else he would have done if I wouldn't have done that because no one else sure as hell was doing anything."

He looks at you, then at Karkat and back at you once again before nodding.

"We'll talk about this later. Understand?"

"Understood."

"And... Who's that? Never caught his name," He visibly relaxes and takes his hat off, running a hand through his hair and rubbing at his eyes. He hasn't slept all night since he got back from work you're guessing.

"Oh! Yeah. This is Karkat. I'll have to tell you why he's here later if that's alright with him...?"

The brown haired boy nods is approval and forces a shy smile towards your brothers direction. 

"Alright, but you two- please go to sleep or be quiet because I need sleep and so do you. It doesn't matter if it is Friday night, I'm tired as hell an' I don't wanna be up any longer than I already had to," He mumbles as he goes back in his room to his futon.

"Right. Come on, Kitkat let's go to my room. And, it's messy as hell so I'll have to clean it sometime else."

"Kitkat? Did you hit your fucking head when you came after me? Jesus Christ, I was saved by an idiot," He laughs at the end of his sentence and holy shit that's so cute what. How can a laugh be so cute, that is going to kill you.

"No, it's my nickname for you and no one else can take it or I will fuck them up," You laugh with him this time and hear a groan from Bro. 

Then you remember both of your clothes are soaking wet, isn't that wonderful. Guess you'll have to lend him a pair of clothes so he isn't sleeping in the ones he's wearing. 

"Hey, I uh, have a pair of clothes you can change into. I don't know how well they'll fit but it's better than wet clothes, right?"

He nods and thanks you after you show him to your bathroom to change, changing into dry clothes yourself as he's gone. After a few minutes, he's back out and looking at you sheepishly, holding his wet clothes and not really knowing what to do.

"You can put those by my bag. I'll take them with us to school on Monday and we can sneak into your house and get some of your clothes and stuff. That sound alright?"

"You really don't have to do that, you've done so much already, really-"

"But I want to, 'Kay? Please let me help you out?" 

He doesn't say anything at first, opening his mouth and then closing it about three times before he lets out a heavy sigh and just agrees.

"Fine, whatever," He says weakly as he lays his wet clothes beside your bag like told. "Thank you..."

"No problem."

You clean your room real quick, fix your bed and spray air freshener everywhere. Not because it stinks. More like because it smells like pizza and Doritos. It's all you really eat inside the house.

Wow. This is the cleanest you've seen your room ever.

When you look up from you cleaning, you already see that Karkat had fallen asleep, curled up towards the wall in a little ball on your bed. You smile and really hope neither of you get sick from being submerged in ice cold water. Your main focus and priority right now is on Karkat though. 

You turn off the lights, take your shades off and put them on the nightstand next to you and lay down beside him, pulling up your blanket with the clubs, spades, hearts and diamonds on it to rest at yours and Karkat's shoulders.

You're going to make him happy even if it kills you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if there are ever any errors (which I know there will probably be plenty) but it's only because I'm writing this on my iPod and it really sucks. Any criticism is always welcome! So long as it isn't rude :)


End file.
